Chapter 895: Absence
The dark lord old man is still in the room. There is not much time left before the start of the 3rd day of the competition.
The old man thought no matter what the target would return before the start of the competition. He still has hope in his heart.
Gregor Mansion:
After closing the status panel, I stood up. I decided to take a bath in my room. But all of a sudden, the control room comes to mind.
For a second, I paused my movements.
"Who could come to my room?" I asked myself.
Then I started walking towards the control room out of curiosity. While walking, I wonder whether I'm taking things seriously.
Sometimes overthinking does more harm. But when I stepped into the control room. My gaze immediately fell on the control mirror.
The next second, a cold shiver went down my spine. In that mirror, I see someone sitting on the chair.
I remained silent and stood in the same spot. Unknowingly, sweat beads appeared on my forehead.
I see the person is wearing worn out black clothes. And appears to be a very old man. But his posture of sitting and his unknown identity. Makes me think he is looking for me.
Phew!
As a trace of clarity appears in my thoughts. I took a deep breath before walking to the control mirror.
I stopped in front of the control mirror. Then I started observing carefully. By no means this is simple. Someone infiltrated my room during my absence.
And he is not from the academy and not someone I know. Which shows that this person has other motives.
There is only one possibility in my case. I don't have admirers. Except the killers who come after my life. If this old man is a high ranking killer sent by the Dark League.
The security measures of the whole capital city are a joke. To think someone trespassed and walked into the duel arena building easily.
I sighed inwardly before sitting on the floor. At this moment, it's impossible to appear outside and confront this person.
The more I think, the more I feel that the previous bad premonition comes from this extremely weak looking old man.
Looking at the control mirror, I lazily laid on the floor. I want to see how long the old man can wait. If I don't go to the gallery room, then the people from the academy will come to see me.
Then I continued to watch the mirror while lazily laid on the ground.
Meanwhile,
The crippled old man goes outside of the academy secretly. Last time, when he went outside. It was known by many. But this time, he wants to investigate secretly.
He didn't go directly to the duel arena. Rather he decides t o check the place outside of the city gates. If the hostile forces want to disturb the peace, then their wizards must be staying outside of the city gate.
Even a magic lord like him couldn't have expected that the threat is actually staying at Vincent's room right now.
Time passes in the blink of an eye,
As the starting time of the competition gets near, the people start to enter the duel arena. They don't know what kind of danger awaits them.
At the same time the people from the academy are also entering their respective blocks.
A block gallery room:
Mike Curtis, Pete, Rayon, Jennie and others enter the room one after another. The Council Elders are also coming one by one.
Mike Curtis returned to his seat. When he saw the empty seat beside him.
"Did I come too early?" A quick gleam flashes in his eyes. When he checked the time. He realized that he didn't come early, rather it's already late.
There are only 15 minutes left before the start of the 3rd day of the competition.
"Strange!" He muttered to himself.
Mike knew Vincent was not the lazy type. He knows Vincent usually comes before everyone. But he never comes late.
As the time passed, others also noticed the strange situation. When Pete realized this. His back went cold. He experienced something crazy last night.
Seeing that Vincent was absent. He couldn't help but think of the creepy looking old man.
"Did something happen to him?" He asked himself.
"Absurd," The next second, he shook his head. If something had happened, then everyone would have known.
Stella Glover walked into the room. Her eyes scanned everyone before falling on the empty seat.
Seeing that Vincent was not here.
A hint of surprise flashes in her eyes.
"Is he going to come late?" She asked herself. Then she found her seat to sit down.
Time passed,
Just 5 minutes left before the start of the competition. Everyone found that Vincent Carey is yet to arrive.
"What happened to him?" One of the council elders asked.
Hearing that Mike Curtis and others showed confused expressions. They themselves are wondering about this.
The council elders present here started to feel something was not right. Though they don't have much of a communication with Vincent Carey because of a different Hall.
But they know Vincent is not the type who arrives late to the competition.
"Does anyone know what he is doing right now?" A council elder questioned everyone.
But none of the level-5 wizards here are that close to Vincent Carey.
Pete's hand is shivering. Only he knows the reason. But he is afraid to tell everyone. If something bad happened to him for real, then he won't be able to live long.
The Sub-Taboo Hall might find an opportunity to kill him.
Gulp!
He swallows saliva in fear. This was seen by Mike Curtis. After seeing the strange expression of Pete, he squinted his eyes
While everyone was surprised and confused. The other hand, Pete's reaction right now is different.
Mike Curtis didn't expose him yet.
Jennie, Miranda, Rayon and Aaron are confused as well.
Vincent's participation is extremely important to the academy. If anyone will pass today, then they are Vincent Carey and Mike Curtis for sure.
The other three wizard students have to show splendid performance.
"Should we contact Galvin?" The council elders start to discuss among themselves.
The wizard students also started murmuring.
By that time everyone could think of a solution. The 5 minutes were over.
On the dual platform, the announcer stepped in. The crowd has already seated in their respective seats. The arena was fully occupied by the people.
"Hello, everyone!"
"Welcome to the 3rd day of the competition," The announcer said. But his voice reached everyone's ears in the arena.
Cheers!
The crowd erupted with loud cheers the next second.
At the end of the 1st stage, all the 3 academies got 5 wins each. So the 2nd stage of the competition will be more competitive.
The crowd is more fired up than yesterday.
Seeing the response from the crowd. The announcer was satisfied.
He then said,"Today, it's the 2nd stage of the competition. Among the 15 participants, one of them will be given a free pass to the next stage."
"The remaining participants will fight one duel each. Among the 14 participants, 7 of them will be selected as the winner."
"So for the 3rd stage, 8 of them will participate," The announcer said to everyone.
His explanation was easy. So everyone understood immediately.
Inside the A Block Gallery room, everyone was tense.
There is no sign of Vincent Carey appearing for the competition.
A female council elder said,"Someone go to his room and check whether he is in the room or not."
Hearing that the level-5 wizards looked at each other.
"I'm going," Stella Glover said. She was the only level-6 wizard who came to watch their duel. Precisely she comes to watch Vincent Carey's duel.
At this point of time, everyone understood this.
Seeing that Stella is willing to go. The female council elder nodded her head.
Stella Glover then left the room.
On the dual platform, the announcer looked at everyone.
"First, we are going to see the participant who will get a free pass to the next stage," After saying that, the announcer looked at the big screen hovering above the platform.
A random selection will be made. So the academy wizards and the crowd people are looking at the screen.
Meanwhile,
Stella comes to the 15th room to check. Standing in front of the door, she thought for a moment before knocking.
Knock!
Inside the dark lord old man opened his eyes after hearing the sound. Right now, the old man's mood was bad.
His target was not here. He thought he would appear at the time of the competition. Now the 2nd stage of the competition has started. Still there was no sign of him.
Even he suspected the target might have gone to the gallery room. If it's true, then he will see him on the duel platform.
But now hearing the knocking sound. A hint of doubt appeared in the dark lord old man's eyes.
If the target is in the gallery room, then why does someone comes to knock on the door right now?